Newton fire chief has used 90+ sick days since announcing retirement

Wednesday

Jun 22, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 22, 2011 at 10:11 PM

The Newton fire chief who was once at the center of a heated dispute over firefighter sick leave has been on medical leave for more than four months and has no intention of returning to work before his pending retirement in July.

Gail Spector

The Newton fire chief who was once at the center of a heated dispute over firefighter sick leave has been on medical leave for more than four months and has no intention of returning to work before his pending retirement in July.

Chief Joseph LaCroix announced on Jan. 11 that he would retire in July. He called in sick to the mayor’s office on Feb.7. Taxpayers have been paying his full salary ever since.

“It is ironic how the world turns,” said Tom Lopez, president of the Newton Firefighters Association. Lopez was elected president at a time when his members were in an uproar about requirements to submit a doctor’s note to the chief, even when missing one day’s work.

Ironic or not, city officials say LaCroix is playing by the rules, just as LaCroix and Newton Mayor David Cohen said they were allowed to enforce the sick note policy under the terms of the fire union’s contract.

“I’m not going to speculate on the timing,” Newton Mayor Setti Warren said when asked to comment on the irony of the LaCroix situation and timing between LaCroix’s retirement announcement and the start of his sick leave.

“We are following the rules we have here in the city based on his requests,” Warren said. “He filed paperwork with the retirement board. We have to allow for that process to move forward.”

With nearly 39 years of service in the Newton Fire Department, LaCroix had accrued several months of sick time, enough for him to collect full pay until his retirement becomes official at the end of July. His salary for the fiscal year ending June 30 is $126,000. He is budgeted to earn $32,000 for FY2012, which includes $6,000 in unused sick time, the maximum an employee can turn in for cash.

Warren appointed LaCroix’s successor, Bruce Proia, on Feb. 22. Proia, whose salary was $105,412 this fiscal year, has been serving as acting chief while LaCroix is on leave. His base salary will be $118,733 next year.

Reached at his Marlboro home last week, LaCroix told the Newton TAB that he initially went on sick leave because he expected to have surgery.

“I was supposed to have abdominal surgery because I have a bulge in the upper abdomen,” LaCroix said. “But when I saw the surgeon, he said it could do more harm than good.”

Also, LaCroix said that he’d had open-heart surgery in 2005 and he’d recently “aggravated that surgery.

,“We had an apartment fire that I was first in on,” LaCroix said,referring to a June 14, 2010 fire on the third floor of 2310 Commonwealth Ave. in Auburndale. “I could see the flames. I jumped out of the car and went into the building and started getting people out.

“That’s when I had trouble catching my breath. That’s when I said I’m just not capable of doing what I used to do. You just got to own up to the fact. You’re always in that denial,” he said.

LaCroix, a Newton native who was appointed fire chief by former Mayor David Cohen in July 2003, was embroiled in controversy through much of his tenure running the department. The chief supported Cohen in his decision to require doctors’ notes from firefighters whenever they called in sick -- a provision allowed but previously unenforced in their contract.

The fiercely controversial policy held up collective bargaining for several years before the Joint Labor Management Committee eventually struck it from the contract, but not before LaCroix lost a vote of confidence from his firefighters.

“It’s hypocritical if you go out and [pushed everybody else] to come up with a note from 2003 – 2008,” said Lopez, referring to LaCroix not having to supply a doctor’s note. “Shame on the city for not making him file some medical documentation.”

Acknowledging the poor relationship between himself and the chief, Lopez said LaCroix didn’t give him many details about his sick leave.

“He told me, ‘I’m going out sick and then I’m retiring and I won’t be back,’” Lopez said. “We spoke the bare minimum.”

According to city ordinance, the director of human resources “may investigate each case of sickness or injury so reported to him and certify his findings to the comptroller of accounts and to the department head or the mayor, as the case may be. As part of his investigation, the director of human resources may accept a written statement in such form as he may prescribe from the absent employee’s health care provider… as to the nature, extent and probable duration of the sickness or injury. He may also require such employee to undergo an examination by a qualified health care provider(s) without charge to the employee.”

Delores Hamilton, director of Human Resources for the city, told the TAB that she has not asked LaCroix to produce documentation verifying his illness although she had discussed it with him.

“He did talk to me briefly about some medical issues he was dealing with prior to going out so I knew he was seeing a lot of doctors,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton added that she knew LaCroix was applying for a disability retirement that would require him to “clearly state” his medical issues. He turned in the completed form, with the required “Treating Physician’s Statement Pertaining to a Member’s Application for a Disability Retirement” on May 3, according to Kelly Byrne, director of the city’s Retirement Board.

Beyond his sick leave, LaCroix is applying for both a regular retirement and “accidental disability retirement,” according to Byrne. Applying for both simultaneously is not unusual, she said, because the application process for a disability retirement takes longer than a regular retirement.

According to Massachusetts General Law, accidental disability retirement applies if someone is “unable to perform the essential duties of his job and that such inability is likely to be permanent before attaining the maximum age for his group by reason of a personal injury sustained or a hazard undergone as a result of, and while in the performance of, his duties…”

Under a regular retirement, LaCroix stands to earn 80 percent of the average of his last three years of salary as his pension. That annual amount would be subject to federal, but not state, taxes, according to Byrne.

An accidental disability retirement factors in a couple of different components, Byrne said. In the chief’s case, he would earn 72 percent of his annual salary upon retirement plus an annuity that is calculated using his contributions and his age, but only the annuity would be federally taxable.

“I think the real difference [between the two] is the taxability of the pensions,” Byrne said. “Overall, that decision is made on an individual basis. Once you retire on a disability pension, you are restricted as to what you can earn.”